This post is part of the series in response to Dunbar’s 2012 Australian seminars. See index.
Food is very useful in dog training.
My notes are a little brief in this section, but I think (!) that Dunbar described four principle roles of food in dog training:
Photograph copyright Ravyk Photography.
1. Lure
Food can be used to lure desirable behaviours. This is very effective for pet owners, who often do need food to make up for deficiencies in other areas (e.g. poor training, poor vocal control, etc). Read more about lure-reward training.
2. Reward
Food can be used to reward desirable behaviours.
3. Classical conditioning
Classical conditioning is associating something good with something else. For example, feeding dogs every time they see another dog means that the dog is more likely to associate other dogs with good things.
4. Distraction
Otherwise known as ‘proofing’ in training, food can be used as a distraction in training exercises.
What if the dog doesn’t like food?
If a dog doesn’t like food, they should be trained to like food! Feed the dog by hand instead of from a bowl, or turn food into a secondary reinforce – “you have to eat the kibble for you do be allowed to do fun things”. Food is too useful to not have in your toolbox for behaviour modification.
Leema, Nailed It in your article. Spot on, Spot on.
Hey Tegan. It’s been such a long time since I last visited you guys. I no longer check out my recent blog lists reason why I haven’t dropped by.
I’ve seen the potential of food used in training and compared to my old pack, my new family of dogs (my sister’s pack) are very motivated by it.
I suppose you don’t have anything regarding aggression… I’m having a problem with a very male-dog-aggressive tiny dog and a gentle giant who wont put up with it.
We hope you could drop by our page and read about it. We would really appreciate your input in it.http://www.mydogslove.me/2012/09/dog-aggression-my-dogs-fought-again.html
Huggies and Cheese,
Haopee
Proper training and grooming can help in developing good food habit among dogs. I have been to a dog grooming center few days ago. There I saw how the trainers take care of every kennel and teach them how to eat proper food, that too on time. I was amazed!
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